Tennessee Volunteers Football Details

TENNESSEE VOLUNTEERS FOOTBALL OVERVIEW

The 2015 Tennessee Volunteers football squad had a solid year after going 9-4 and finishing off the season with a Outback Bowl win over Northwestern. Tennessee had fallen off a bit but seem to be heading in the right direction and may soon be a power in the SEC. Head coach Butch Jones is heading into his 4th year and believes that the Volunteers have what it takes to be back in the national spotlight heading forward.

The Volunteers have their football roots dating back to 1891, but really started to get nationally recognized in 1926 when Robert Neyland began his era as head coach for the Volunteers. Neyland had a very successful coaching career at Tennessee. Neyland had stints in the military so there were gaps where he did not coach. Neyland coached from 1926-1934, 1936-1940, and 1946-1952. The gaps where Neyland was serving in the military and did not coach, the Volunteers struggled. Neyland ended his career with a 173-31 record, 4 National Championship appearances (1938, 1940, 1950, and 1951), 2 National Championship wins (1938 and 1950), 8 SEC conference championships, 6 undefeated seasons, and never had a losing season. Neyland retired in 1952 due to poor health and in 1962, the university renamed the stadium, Neyland Stadium in his honor. The Volunteers program saw 3 different head coaches from 1953-1963. Harvey Robinson, Bowden Wyatt, and James McDonald were the three coaches and all saw some success but struggled to live up to the expectations that were up because of Neyland. Doug Dickey took over as head coach in 1964 and would have success as head coach until he left to coach at Florida in 1970. Over his years with Tennessee, Dickey went 46-15 with 5 bowl game appearances, 2 bowl game wins, 5 winning seasons, and 2 SEC titles. Bill Battle would take over as Tennessee head coach in 1970 and coach until 1976 and have a fair share of success. He had an overall record of 59-22 with 5 bowl game appearances, 4 bowl game wins, and 7 winning seasons. Battle would be forced out due to going 6-5 in his final season. The Johnny Majors era at Tennessee would begin in 1977. Majors would struggle at the beginning of his career but would eventually find success with the Volunteers as he coached until 1992. Majors won 3 SEC championships and went to 11 bowl games with 7 bowl game wins and an 116-62 record when before Majors was forced to resign in favor of next head coach Phillip Fulmer.

Coach Fulmer had a lot of success in his long tenure with the Volunteers. Fulmer had a very successful start to his career that saw some decline towards the end when he stepped down as head coach in 2008. In his career Fulmer had an overall record of 152-52 and led the Volunteers to 1 National Championship in 1998, 15 bowl game appearances, 8 bowl game wins, 2 SEC conference titles, 6 SEC East titles, and 14 winning seasons. After Fulmer, Tennessee saw two different head coaches from 2009-2012. Lane Kiffin was coach for the 2009 season and went 7-6 before leaving the program to coach at USC. Derek Dooley would take over in 2010 and only coach until 2012 as he had losing seasons in each of his years as head coach. Current coach Butch Jones took over in 2013 and continues to improve each season. Jones currently is 21-17 in his career and looks to improve in 2016. Jones has led the Volunteers to two bowl games in 2014 and 2015 and has won both of them. Things are looking up for the Volunteers.

Multiple college football stars have come through the University of Tennessee and went on to be great NFL stars. Some of the great players to play in Knoxville are: Peyton Manning, Eric Berry, Doug Atkins, Jamal Lewis, Jason Witten, Arian Foster, Albert Haynesworth, Dustin Colquitt, Robert Meachem, and many more. The competitive environment and history of Tennessee makes it a great place that will attract young talent.

Since Butch Jones began as head coach for the Volunteers, they have improved their record consistently every season. In 2016, the Volunteers will look to be one of the top teams in the SEC and possibly qualify for the College Football Playoffs. But every game is a challenge and the Volunteers will have to give it all they got in order to be in the conversation as one of the best teams in the country.

TENNESSEE VOLUNTEERS FOOTBALL TICKET INFORMATION

Neyland Stadium is one of the great venues to watch college football in as Vols fans fill it every time there’s a game. The atmosphere at Tennessee Volunteers games is a very intimidating site for opponents and is an electric atmosphere for anyone in attendance. Tickets to Vols games may be very expensive so make sure to check out Rukkus for cheap Tennessee Volunteers Football tickets.